It's really hard to keep up with the cryptocurrency development even for a programmer. Every coin is trying to introduce a lot of new terms to show you how innovative it is. But in many cases it turns out to be just another vaporware. And at the end of the day you see that you've waisted your time for nothing.
What do you mean wasted your time? At least you have pick up something, because I know programmers are people who love to solve problem, maybe you just got disappointed because of so many projects without any real usage whatsoever.
How many books did you read / how many courses did you complete before you started investing in Bitcoin? Can you honestly say: do you really have the time to keep up with the crypto world or at some point you just started to believe in tech instead of trying to grasp every single crypto feature?
To be honest, I didn't read any books. I just go around this community and learn everything from ground up. Yeah, its hard to keep with the latest news, but there are a lot of resources outside this forum. You just have to devote some time, imho.